Chapter 147: The End of Childhood (6)

Namgung Hyeong was still seated at his desk.

One might think it had not been that long.

But an entire day had passed.

All that time, he had even sent his meals away and sat alone, lost in thought.

There were several major problems, first of all.

Apart from the fact that he had to struggle to drive out the Demonic Energy that had entered his body.

The most dreadful of them was that Night-Heaven Hall had all but collapsed.

Of course, the organization itself remained.

It was not as if every member of Night-Heaven Hall had been slaughtered.

But Gisan Gwang, who had been deputy commander, was dead. Byeoksagok, who had been Hall Lord of Night-Heaven Hall, was dead as well.

“......And even the Dark Emperor.”

Before the Sword Sovereign, he had been called the Dark Sovereign.

A man said to have assassinated even a Transformation Realm master......

Had died at the Zhuge Household.

That was an outcome Namgung Hyeong had never anticipated.

Of course, the information spreading through the world said that he had been defeated in a battle against Elder Jeonggang, the Mount Hua Sword Emperor.

There was nothing strange about that information.

It had been a head-on fight, not an ambush.

On top of that, Elder Jeonggang was already one level above the Dark Emperor.

If he met an even stronger opponent in an unfavorable situation, of course he could only fall.

And yet something about it was clearly strange.

The death of the deputy commander, the death of the Hall Lord, and the death of the Hall Lord’s master, the Dark Emperor.

Add to that the Demonic Cult remnants rising at the Shandong Ak Family, and the defection of Flame-Saber Emperor Ak Jupae.

At the center of every large and weighty incident, that girl had always been there.

Cheon Soyak.

The child who had made her name known to the world by defeating Namgung Seon.

The one who had instantly imprinted her presence far and wide as Mount Hua’s qilin.

Namgung Hyeong silently looked out the window.

The atmosphere in the household was cold, quiet, and severe.

Because the Sword Sovereign’s visit had been announced.

“......To think Father would come at a time like this.”

The moment they met face-to-face, he would recognize the Demonic Energy that had entered Namgung Hyeong’s body.

He would help drive it out, yes......

But Namgung Hyeong would have to endure that contemptuous gaze too, the one that looked at him as though he were pathetic.

His stomach seemed to turn over.

He felt the shard of Demonic Energy lodged sharply in his dantian boiling.

It was unmistakably an inner demon, and an early symptom of deviation.

He had tried somehow to resolve it alone, but he knew very well that his skill was not enough.

“Hah......”

In the storehouse, there were Shaolin’s Great Return Pills, ten-thousand-year snow ginseng, and even Azurite Stalactite Essence.

But those were not things even the Family Head of the Namgung Household, the number one household under heaven, could casually take out and use.

Besides, right now, those treasures were as good as reserved for Namgung Seon.

Namgung Seon possessed talent that surpassed even the Sword Sovereign’s.

If such spirit medicines, no different from divine relics, were given to him at the proper time and in the proper amounts......

The Sword Sovereign would fulfill his dream of making the Martial Alliance Leader’s position hereditary.

Not through Namgung Hyeong, but through Namgung Seon.

But what if Namgung Hyeong devoured them just to remove one shard of Demonic Energy?

It was obvious what kind of rebuke his father, the Sword Sovereign, would give him.

He would probably receive even deeper contempt than he would for showing the pathetic sight of himself suffering over a mere shard of Demonic Energy.

He did not have the confidence to endure that.

At least Namgung Seon had not crossed the line with him yet......

But the boy was fifteen now, and would soon come of age.

Once he exchanged swords at the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering, his skill would be revealed to the world.

And once the outstanding young talents of the Nine Great Sects and Five Great Households gathered together and carried out the customary Martial Alliance mission......

It would become clear who the true dragon and qilin leading the future martial world would be.

Namgung Hyeong recalled his own youth.

Unfortunately, he had failed to place near the top at the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering.

In other words, he had not been acknowledged as an “outstanding young talent.”

He had at least attended the custom because he was the best young direct-blooded talent the Namgung Household had......

But he remembered himself always falling behind.

He had only been granted a Martial Alliance mission together with the others because he carried Namgung blood.

Because of that, the “qualified” young talents of his generation who had ranked highly at the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering looked down on him.

They always left him behind when he lagged, and never looked back.

He bore no resentment toward them.

Even he would probably have found it repulsive to see a man participating in a glorious duty merely by leaning on his family’s prestige.

The truly dreadful, incurable, and insurmountable problem was himself.

Those born without talent were doomed to flounder forever in the shadow of talent they could never grasp.

Namgung Hyeong’s entire life had been marked by that wandering.

By meaningless effort and predetermined failure.

Then a chilling voice rang inside his head.

—Do you want talent?

Namgung Hyeong froze where he sat.

That voice......

It was an unforgettable voice he had heard in the recent past.

The Heavenly Demon lives.

It was the same voice the Demonic Cult’s Young Cult Leader’s head had uttered.

Which meant that now, the Young Cult Leader’s head, sealed deep beneath the Family Head’s Office behind several layers of barriers and mechanism-formations......

Was speaking to him?

He could not believe it.

“......Damn it. I must be exhausted.”

—It seems you find this difficult to believe.

“......Damn it.”

He tried to dismiss it as an auditory hallucination.

It was useless.

Apparently, the voice was being sent through the shard of Demonic Energy embedded deep in his dantian.

Each time the Young Cult Leader’s voice echoed in his head, he felt a strange movement in his dantian as well.

—I will ask again. Do you want talent?

*****

The Red Tile Pavilion, residence of the Mount Hua Sect Leader.

Behind it was an annex building.

Its original purpose had been as a storage room for miscellaneous items.

But now that the interior had been somewhat cleared, the Young Cult Leader was living there.

As the phrase “miscellaneous items” suggested, it was a place no one cared about.

And a place no one touched.

Miscellaneous items, after all, were another way of saying extremely personal belongings.

And no disciple was bold enough to touch the Sect Leader’s “personal belongings.”

Of course, if asked whether the Young Cult Leader liked his new residence, the answer was no.

More than anything, being treated like one of the Sect Leader’s “miscellaneous items” must have twisted his insides.

However, his playing around with Eunbyeok was a separate matter.

Of course......

Sect Leader Jeongyang had no way of knowing that.

Which was why he was now knocking on the door of this “storage room for miscellaneous items.”

“Come in if you want.”

The Young Cult Leader answered indifferently.

Jeongyang seemed thoroughly irritated.

And with reason, since he had just gone to the underground cave beneath South Peak, just in case, because of the rumor that morning.

“What in the world did you do?”

“What are you saying I did?”

“Dead Eunbyeok’s corpse was gone without a trace.”

The Young Cult Leader feigned ignorance and shrugged.

Then he lied as calmly as if it were the truth.

“How would I know? That is what Demonic Energy is by nature. You cannot die even after dying, and you are not alive even while living.”

“You expect me to believe the word ‘know nothing’ coming out of your mouth when it concerns Demonic Energy?”

Jeongyang’s brow furrowed until his face looked ugly.

The Young Cult Leader still did not lose his smile.

Then he answered with a slippery ease.

“In any case, it has nothing to do with me.”

“Hah. Keep being that uncooperative, why don’t you.”

Normally, he would have punished such a man for failing to know his place.

But now was neither the time nor his mood for that.

Yesterday, he had certainly controlled Eunbyeok’s body properly.

Though there had been unavoidable limits because the body was already rotting.

Normally, the internal energy in a dead martial artist’s dantian would scatter.

But he had overcome even that.

As soon as he raised the corpse, he forcibly circulated the blood vessels and meridians still left unrotted in that body and built up a sufficient amount of internal energy.

It was a tyrannical method.

But the result of reversing the internal energy pathways of the Primordial Origin Clear-Heart Method had been successful.

The meridians, already half-rotted and ragged, had been ruined beyond any future use.

But that corpse had been disposable anyway.

And thanks to that, he had faced Soyak.

Though the image seen through half-rotted, softened eyeballs had not been clear, and though his throat had already been torn ragged so no voice came out.

He had recognized it at once.

Those were the eyes of the Heavenly Killing Star, perfectly identical to the Heavenly Demon’s.

Coldly refined killing intent.

The bottomless abyss glimpsed at the center of those black eyes.

Unfathomable darkness whirling in the depths of that pit.

Every Demonic Cultist whose fate had touched the Heavenly Demon and who had inherited part of the Malevolent God would instinctively recognize it.

However, he was certain that the Heavenly Demon had not died.

That was based on......

Unmistakable circumstances, evidence, and facts known only to the Young Cult Leader.

Then did that mean there were two Heavenly Demons under heaven?

No.

There was only one earthly proxy chosen by the Malevolent God.

If the Heavenly Demon had truly died, the Young Cult Leader would have somehow coaxed Soyak into becoming a candidate for the Heavenly Demon......

“......There is no need.”

“What is?”

At the Young Cult Leader’s murmur, Jeongyang asked again, his brow heavily furrowed.

Whether Jeongyang was curious or not, the Young Cult Leader waved a hand and shook his head.

“Never mind.”

“You have far too many secrets.”

“Do you want to know so badly about the Heavenly Demon?”

The Heavenly Demon.

At those words alone, Jeongyang’s body stiffened for a moment.

Then he looked back at the Young Cult Leader.

“......You know something.”

“It would make no sense for me, the Little Heavenly Demon, not to know where the Heavenly Demon is and what he is doing.”

“Hah. Will you tell me?”

“As if I would.”

Jeongyang’s face flushed red and blue.

But the Young Cult Leader still paid no mind to someone like Jeongyang.

They said there was only one Heavenly Demon under heaven.

But if there were two qualified candidates, one would be treated as a challenger.

It was better to cut off the bud of a usurper early.

If it was the Jeonggang he remembered, and if they were Jeonggang’s disciple and disciple-granddaughter......

One day, they would use even that for all it was worth.

Above all, that girl’s talent.

At fourteen years old, she had already reached the very edge of Transcendent Apex.

That skill, drawing Sword Qi close to Sword Force through an ingenious method.

It was undoubtedly a threat.